Older people are spending more time on their phones than the kids are

Some think this is a good thing as we enter into an "app-based retirement." I am not so sure.

Me in Edinburgh, explaining how we do everything on our phones now.

My friend and former Treehugger colleague Katherine Martinko writes about “digital media and the effect that a screen-based life has on children.” In a recent post, Get Off Your Gross Little Phone, she complains about adults.

“If aliens arrived on Earth today, they’d assume that every human is born with a small glass-and-metal rectangle embedded in their palm. It’s more normal to see a person with a phone in their hand than not. It has become a weird, aberrant extension of our physiology—and that needs to change.”

Now the Economist pushes the narrative to another generation, in an article titled Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly.

“As today’s 60-somethings, already familiar with digital technology, enter retirement, time spent on smart devices is shooting up among the elderly. Some older adults “are increasingly living their lives through their phones, the way teenagers or adolescents sometimes do”, says Ipsit Vahia, head of the Technology and Ageing Laboratory at McLean Hospital, part of Harvard Medical School. The digital habits that have transformed the teenage years are now coming to old age.”

The Economist never publishes their writers’ names, but the article is full of ageist terminology and feels like it was written by a 20-year-old- really, are people in their sixties considered “elderly?” But there are some interesting nuggets.

The time spent on digital devices is growing like mad. “Rather than replacing time spent on other media, phones and tablets seem to be adding to the daily total.” Combining all the new tech with television, and “those of retirement age clock up more daily screen time than do young adults.”

I was shocked when I saw this graph, but then I started tracking my own device use, and when I am not sitting at my computer writing, I can generally be found staring at my iPad, reading far too many Substacks and online magazines, or reading books in the Kindle or Libby app, which I prefer to print. Then I do what I am doing now- write about it on Substack. I am also using my iPhone and Apple Watch to track my food and exercise, and to practice Japanese on Duolingo. Most of my waking hours are spent staring at one of my various screens.

I suspect I am not alone, but some would say I am not looking at the bright side of life here. According to Joe Coughlin of the MIT AgeLab, “The future of retirement living is being shaped by 60-somethings tapping an app.”

“On-demand living, from home services to grocery delivery to ride-sharing, was once framed as the domain of convenience-hungry Millennials and Gen Z’ers. But look around any neighborhood on any given day and you’ll see a different reality unfolding. A steady rotation of Amazon drivers, Instacart shoppers, Uber and Lyft rides, and TaskRabbit handypeople increasingly serve older adults, not just the young.”

Coughlin suggests this will help people “age in place” in their homes. I got into a lot of trouble a few years ago, complaining about baby boomers who think they can stay in their suburban homes forever.

Another survey confirms that boomers are clueless

“A lot of people got mad at me for calling baby boomers clueless, telling me that it was perfectly reasonable to want to stay in their homes and that autonomous cars and food delivery services would solve this. Perhaps, for a few rich people, they will. But in most cases, it is a matter of an unwillingness to accept the inevitable.”

But according to Dr. Coughlin, I am wrong. It won’t just be the rich. There will be a cost, but it is like electricity and heat, a “new line item in retirement planning.”

According to AARP, the vast majority of Americans say they would prefer to age in place. A preference that will increasingly depend not on family support but on a functioning service ecosystem. DoorDash and Instacart will sustain nutrition. Uber, Lyft, and GoGoGrandparent will provide mobility and connection. TaskRabbit and Handy will substitute for the “son-in-law with tools.” Amazon and pharmacy delivery will support medication adherence. Telehealth and smart-home sensors will monitor safety and health in the background. Aging-in-place will look less like “I live independently” and more like “I manage a personalized supply chain.”

I suppose this all works until you take off your Apple Watch to have a shower, so when you slip and fall, the watch doesn’t call 911. Or you start forgetting where you put your phone. Or the cost of those DoorDash meals adds up to more than you allowed for in the line item. Or you get stuck in some online digital cult and get alienated from your real-life family and friends.

I think Joe Coughlin’s app-based retirement is an expensive and isolating fantasy; what we need instead are walkable communities, libraries, grocery stores, appropriate housing, and good neighbours.

In Japan, postal workers check in on older people to make sure they are OK. In the Netherlands, many grocery stores have “chat checkouts” with trained cashiers to talk to older customers and ensure they are OK. We don’t need to rely on phones and apps when we can build care into our communities.

Katherine Martinko is right to complain about what phones are doing to her and her children’s generation. I am looking in the mirror and worrying about what it is doing to me and my generation, who shouldn’t be living their lives through their phones.

I might try spending a little less time on Bluesky and Substack and a bit more time talking to Kelly or getting outside. I don’t want my future to be shaped by tapping an app.